


The Big Picture

by taeminki



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 10:13:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11251038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taeminki/pseuds/taeminki
Summary: Mark and Haechan solve a puzzle together.





	The Big Picture

"What is the picture supposed to be again?" Donghyuck asked. He would reach for the top of the box and look for himself, but Mark was quite focused on the section of the puzzle that his arm would cross should he reach for the box. That, and Mark's water was sitting right in front of it and Donghyuck wasn't sure he trusted himself to maneuver his way around it to get the box. Moving the water meant moving it on top of puzzle pieces or knocking away puzzle pieces they'd carefully set out; setting it on the floor meant forgetting about it, most likely, and Mark bumping it with his knee... too much; and Mark had a good memory-- "Like, an ocean. With fish and a dolphin-- the dolphin is the point."

"A dolphin." Donghyuck repeated. He examined the puzzle again. He exclaimed "Ah!" when he found a place for the piece he happened to have in his hand. 1,000 pieces, and so few were put together. They'd gotten two layers of the border and one corner on Mark's side. Mark was working on a completely separate piece by himself that he could carefully lay into the puzzle when it was time. It would most likely be near the end, perhaps even the last handfuls of pieces they would put down. So far, his little blog of put-together pieces looked an awful lot like the grey-blue belly of a dolphin.

"Can you hand me that red piece over there, baby?" Mark asked. Donghyuck found the one he was looking for quite easily; it was red with a sliver of grey-blue in the corner and a sliver of yellow on the other corner. Donghyuck could see where Mark was going to put it before Donghyuck had even handed the piece over. It was oddly satisfying to watch him snap the piece right into place-- easy.

"You're so much better at this than me." Donghyuck muttered, kind of jealous. Here was another thing Mark was unbelievably good at. (Donghyuck felt so lucky that he could know someone like Mark, that he could love someone like Mark.)

"I've had a lot of practices with puzzles-- my favorite thing to do when I was growing up." Mark said. He didn't even look at Donghyuck was he was talking. His eyes were darting around, his fingers searching for the next piece. He looked beautiful; his eyes were wide with concentration, he was biting his lip as he focused. Donghyuck thought he might just be distracted-- which is why he had only done a layer of the border so far. He couldn't focus on the puzzle because Mark was so damn beautiful.

"Can you hand me that yellow piece, babe?" Mark asked, pointing to said piece. Donghyuck reached for it, handed it over, and Mark looked at the piece, smiled, and pointed again, "The other one too, please-- thank you, baby--" and then Mark did the most random thing. He leaned over, and he kissed Donghyuck's lips while Donghyuck's eyes were still wide open. Donghyuck hadn't been expecting the random kiss at all; he stay frozen for a minute until Mark laughed, and reached to place a hand on his back, gently rubbing near the middle of his spine. He leaned to kiss Donghyuck again; and he told Donghyuck, "You're cute when you're shocked, you know?"

"You're cute when you kiss me out of nowhere." Donghyuck said, finally getting over the shock and smiling at Mark. Mark laughed right back, but he didn't kiss Donghyuck again. His focus went back to the puzzle-- to expand on the corner that protruded from the border rather than the blob of piece from the middle of the puzzle that he had been working on. Donghyuck decided to focus on the puzzle, too. He began to set pieces along the right side of the puzzle, expanding on the border. Soon enough, Mark had an entire corner of the puzzle done, and Donghyuck had an entire side of it.

"Wait--" Mark said, halting Donghyuck's activity. Mark carefully picked up the blob of the middle of the puzzle and set it right in the middle, connecting the awkwardly extended corner with a piece that Donghyuck had just put down. _Quick eye_ , Donghyuck thought. Mark looked at Donghyuck, proud of himself, and Donghyuck leaned over to kiss him, a simple _I'm proud of you, too_ , in a place where the words would sound a little odd. Mark laughed when the kiss was over, telling Donghyuck "You're cute when you kiss me out of nowhere, too," and Donghyuck did it again just because he could.

"Pretty dolphin," Mark commented some time later, when he and Donghyuck were putting the last of the puzzle pieces into place. They had time after the first half an hour to drink their water and snack on their little gummies, with the free space on the table and the entire middle done. They even held hands for some time while Donghyuck worked on the top right corner of the puzzle and Mark worked on the bottom left of it. It was coming together-- coming and coming. Some fish were yet to be revealed, but they'd gotten the big picture so far. (Mark was particularly good at getting the big picture.)

"Pretty everything. I love the ocean." Donghyuck said, popping a whale gummy into his mouth. It was orange and tasted of the fruit. It was Donghyuck's least favorite, but it was still good. (Amazing gummy brand, really.)

"Two more pieces," Mark said, letting out a sigh like they'd accomplished something big (which they had, really, but a 1,000 piece puzzle compared to everything else they had done-- ha. This was nothing). He held up both pieces-- one for Donghyuck, and one for himself. Donghyuck reached for the one in his left hand, but Mark pulled it away suddenly, holding the one in his right hand closer to Donghyuck-- "This one, baby," and Donghyuck felt his face heat up just a little, but surely not enough that the color reached his cheeks. Mark's right hand, once free of a puzzle piece, held onto Donghyuck's left. Their fingers intertwined; Mark asked "Shall we?" and all Donghyuck could do was nod. 1, 2, 3-- and they placed their pieces, and they completed their picture-- Donghyuck completing the little red fish in the corner and Mark completing the big grey-blue dolphin in the middle.

"We did it!" Mark said happily, letting go of Donghyuck's hand just to high five him with both hands, intertwine their fingers on _both hands_ , bring everything down to their sides and kiss Donghyuck smack on the mouth. Donghyuck giggled into the kiss, effectively breaking it. Instead of leaning right back in, he told Mark "You're cute," and kissed Mark-- and Mark giggled, and he broke the kiss, too-- "So are you."

**Author's Note:**

> \-- because i read that mark bought haechan a 1,000 piece puzzle for his birthday and that's the cutest thing ever?? i love boyfriends :3


End file.
